In Solitude
by iPoly
Summary: When they went to the north pole, they didn't expect the world to change so much. It was meant to be a simple, exploration mission. But, after the world was plunged into a never ending winter, they sought out each other for warmth. After all, it was what they'd done to get into this mess, so it should get them out. SasuHina/NaruSaku. Formerly, Winter Kisses. (Status Pending)
1. Prelude to Winter, Part 1

The four robed shinobi walked underneath pale blue, almost grey sky. The wind whipped their cloaks back every timed it barred its fangs and howled its angry sound. A whistle, more like, the sort of screech that sounded when one tried to cut glass. One that was only ever naturally heard in the mountains.

It was starting to make Hinata's head hurt.

This was supposed to be a Jōnin assignment, but she wasn't sure why.

The mission was fairly simple, albeit almost annoyingly repetitive in its nature.

Everything looked _exactly_ the same up here, because they'd walked so far north that no matter where she looked, no matter how far into the distance she tried to see, all that there was to see was white. Snow. Icy lakes with snow atop them. Leafless trees to their rear, all with snow clinging to their branches. Mountains, like the one that they were treading up now, which were covered in the fluffy white stuff.

It had been bliss when they'd first gotten off of the boats, because the times when snow would fall in Konoha, even in the middle of the winter, were far and few between. It hadn't even rained last year, nor in January _this_ year, but it was spring and somehow these lands were buried in it. It had been astonishing, such that she could hardly contain the giddy excitement that came from seeing so much of the powdery substance in one that.

Their mission was lead by the Uchiha.

All three of them, Team Kakashi, were Jōnin, though Hinata herself was in the process of becoming one, and she was sure that her father had a special arrangement with the Hokage. Because all with all of the paperwork, weekly exams, and meetings with ANBU Agents to see rather she was interested in joining the Black Ops, it seemed like her rank had been predetermined. This wasn't at all what she'd have expected, however.

The assignment had originally been given to Team 7, of course, but Sasuke had asked her if she'd like to come. He'd said something along the lines of: _"I don't want to be stuck with Sakura and Naruto, and you're the only person I could think of who isn't annoying."_ But, for the majority of their expedition he hadn't spoken to her. They chatted a little on the boat, though. Small talk. Just a friendly exchange while they leaned on the rails and watched the icy water, about Naruto and Sakura, strangely. Ever since he'd come back to Konoha he'd become a bit nicer than she thought possible. She felt oddly comfortable speaking to him, because he seemed to be able to understand her in a way that no-one else did.

She stopped walking once Sasuke lifted his cloth-wrapped, left hand. His onyx eyes resting on a distant beacon of light, a beam that broke the clouds above it, for a moment before Naruto brought a hand up to his shoulder. When their eyes met, they exchanged non-compatible looks with one another, the blond giving a grin and the Uchiha narrowing his eyes.

"Tired already, Sasuke?"

"No." The dark eyed Jōnin returned his gaze to the white landscape below them. "How long do you think it'll take to get there?"

A short silence followed, and from the sudden change in mood that was visible in Naruto's eyes as well as his now straight, strong posture, she assumed that he was accessing the distance. If she used her Byakugan, the woman _knew_ that she would be able to see those muscles... But she had been so lost staring at Naruto that she hadn't even noticed Sakura's elbow nudging hers, the pinkette's voice ringing in her head to snap her from the daze she hadn't known that she'd slipped into.

"Hinata? Are you listening to me?"

The Hyūga nodded quickly and gave a halfhearted laugh, a small, sheepish smile finding its way to her lips while she rubbed her gloved hands together, her cheeks reddening from the cold. Her soft spoken voice came out in puffs of fog, and her lilac eyes met the deeper, emerald ones of the Haruno.

"Hai... What did you say, again?"

A sound skin to a pouting whimper left Sakura's glazed lips and she folded her arms, watching the Hyūga from beneath her lashes. "If you like him so much why don't you-"

Hinata's hands flew to cover the pinkette's mouth and she shushed her repeatedly, though the other kunoichi kept talking under her hands. Her muffled speaking added a deeper red to that which was already present, but this one was all blush.

"A-are you c-c-crazy?" The heiress hissed, or rather _tried_ to hiss, her stammering keeping her from being even a _little_ intimidating. "He's _right there..._ "

She felt Sakura sigh under her hands and, after careful consideration, lowered them from the other woman's small lips. "Sasuke needs a girl to dote on him." The green eyed kunoichi whispered, batting her eyelashes ever so innocently and pushing out her lower lip teasingly. When Hinata didn't answer, her eyebrows raised a little, a look of confusion starting to bleed together with the façade of naïveté she'd been trying to keep up. "You _were_ staring at _him_... right?"

"N... no..."

It would have felt so much worse to lie, but even admitting that she hadn't been watching Sasuke made her feel horrible. Now... she was well aware that the Uchiha was startlingly handsome, and she wouldn't deny having given him a glance here and there when he'd come back to the village. She'd watched him grow into the young man he was now from a far, from the confused, hormonal mess of a nigh-bipolar teen he'd been a few years ago. But she had never... _NEVER_ stared at him.

But it wasn't the momentary, inner thought that she'd subjected herself to that had gotten her to stutter a continuance of her previous proclamation, it was the way that Sakura furrowed her brows upon hearing it. As though she were able to see straight through to the Hyūga's very soul. Such a suddenly serious glare that the dark haired woman turned her eyes away as she spoke. Ino had teased her about Sakura and Naruto spending more time together in the last few months, and had even suggested that they might be dating, but Hinata had vehemently denied it. Now she doubted herself on it.

"I was just... wondering how they'd gotten so friendly..."

She _felt_ the glaring lighten up, and lifted her eyes to see that the pinkette's grinning had come back. The Haruno brought her hand up and rubbed the back of her head, in a way surprisingly similar to how Naruto would. Sakura's demeanour had changed so quickly that Hinata couldn't properly return the smile she received, and the Jōnin hooked an arm around her shoulders and tugged her aside.

"They tried killing each other as soon as they could move their arms." Her grinning hadn't ceased when her speaking began, "But I think they got tired of beating each other up and called a truce, or something. I haven't seen Sasuke around much, but Naruto is always trying to run off to train with him." Sakura glanced over her shoulder and sighed, "They have some sort of unspoken rivalry, so they tolerate each other for the sake of fighting."

"Oh..." the heiress twiddled her fingers in front of herself, her eyes dropping down to the ground in front of her. "I... I see..." She touched the tips of her index fingers together, her eyes flicking up when she felt Sakura's gaze on her again. The meeting of their eyes was short, but watching the deep green irises of her senior shinobi eased the tension that the heiress felt. If even just a little.

"You haven't changed at all, Hinata."

* * *

It was the damn wind.

The sound of it, that whistle that he thought he'd be numb to by now, and the needle-like cold that was stabbing the _shit_ out of all the exposed skin that it could get its claws on. There were no words that could describe how much he hated this journey, and it had only just began. Sakura's giggling just a few metres behind him didn't help, either, and nor did the utterly insipid jests that Naruto made to her delight.

He'd made a good choice in bringing the Hyūga, because she was _quiet_. And, probably as unimpressed as he was.

Sasuke took a backward glimpse at the lavender eyed young woman, and one that didn't go unnoticed. She lifted her eyes the instant that his found her, and a small smile curved her full lips. The Jōnin waved her over, and the Chūnin, who'd moments earlier been walking apart from the group, picked up her pace until she was at his side.

"You know that you can talk to me, if you're uncomfortable with them, right Hyūga?"

She nodded, replying with a short _"Hai_ " and looking up to him.

Her lilac eyes held his this time, and the Uchiha, feeling a bit of an adrenaline-like rush beginning to build in himself, cleared his throat and turned his obsidian gaze elsewhere, looking toward their destination in the north, which didn't seem to be getting any closer. There was something about this woman that he found unsettling, though it wasn't necessarily _bad_. Her innocent composure and gentle, quiet way of carrying herself, sparked an innate interest in her that he had held since their Academy days, but had always denied fervently due to his goals.

But now that he had no tangible justification for it, and the Haruno and Yamanaka had both moved on from him, he supposed he could satiate the long dormant hunger for understanding that he bore toward her. And he knew that as long as Sakura occupied the dobe, she would be easy to poke at. It'd be fun.

Sasuke folded his left arm over his chest and lifted her right hand to his chin, lowering his eyes to her again, and not being so surprised when her lavender eyes found his. Those eyes were full of mystery and wonder, and a naïve purity that he found a sudden _need_ to keep to himself.

And he very well would.

"What's it like?"

A slight tilt of her her and the way that Hinata's lovely lilac eyes shone under the light of the distant, setting sun changed, just a little. Confusion came first, and then a bit of interest flashed in them. "Elaborate, Uchiha-san?"

The Uchiha nodded and spoke again. "Given that you're the Hyūga princess, you must be treated like one at home. What's it like to have legions of Hyūga doting on you?"

For a moment she stared up to him with raised eyebrows, but the sweet smile returned to her lips in an instant. The heiress lifted her hand and waved the comment away. If she took the comment as a compliment, he didn't intend for it to be. "It's nothing like that at all." She admitted, her tone shifting a bit before she spoke again. Her voice bearing a subtle, curious lilt.

The majority of her questions were rather tame. She had asked him about his travelling across the Shinobi World, and about Team Taka. The Hyūga seemed far more interested in Uzumaki Karin than anything else, and he supposed that it was justified. This woman was infatuated with Naruto, after all, and she seemed too timid to talk to him. More so with Sakura clinging to his arm the way that she tended to do. She asked about his Sharingan, and how it worked, how he used his Rinnegan.

And then she asked him to _show_ her.

He hadn't actually used it since his battle with Naruto, and with the First Hokage's cells in him he had no idea if his Rinnegan was even the same as he remembered. He even questioned rather or not he _could_ still use it, because in his sparring sessions with Naruto he hadn't thought to pull it out again. His Eternal Mangekyō had been enough whenever the dobe wasn't using Rikudō chakra.

Sasuke politely declined.

Much to her disappointment. She had a strangely uncharacteristic allure about her, and it didn't seem like she was _trying_ , either. It appeared to be natural for her. Maybe it came from her being raised among the Hyūga. His parents had told him about their traditional values, and strict rules, and his mother had often told him that she dreamed of what it may be like to be raised that way, rather than in the Laissez-faire environment that the Uchiha Clan tended to keep.

"You know, Uchiha-san..." His dark eyes shifted down to her again, to find that her pearl gaze was turned to the distance. He followed her gaze out to the beacon that they'd been following for hours, and for a moment wondered why they were _walking_. "You're a lot nicer than I thought..."

...

 _What?_

As soon as Sasuke realised that his mouth was agape, and his eyes locked on her again, he pressed his lips into a firm line and composed himself again. Silence followed, and in that silence he found it a bit harder to stop staring at her than it had been before. Her light eyes came again, but this time he immediately averted his focus. The little laugh that managed to escape those perfect lips made him hate that he'd never taken the time to talk to her, before. It was a better, softer laugh than Sakura's or Ino's.

"You have an interesting face, Uchiha-san.."

A second round of silence ensued, and this one stretched on for a few minutes while they walked, nothing but the combined howls of the wind and the laughter of the Haruno and the Uzumaki just a few metres behind them. Maybe, he thought before speaking, his comment was a bit late.

"Dōmo, Hyūga."

* * *

They were on level ground, now, and were nearing a forest of barren trees. There seemed to be very little life up here, and it was reasonable given the climate, but the lack of any sounds outside of the group of shinobi and the wind still came off as quite unsettling to her. Night had fallen an hour ago, and the already freezing temperature had plummeted. Even tucking her hands under her arms didn't do much to warm her.

The Uchiha ahead of her, just a little more than a metre, didn't seem at all effected, and nor did Naruto who walked at his side. If they were talking, then she was certain her ears had chilled through because she didn't hear them. The sound of crunching snow underfoot, however, was still very apparent to her, so that probably _wasn't_ the case.

Not too long ago Naruto had suggested that they find somewhere to set up camp. _"In this tundra?"_ She remembered Sasuke asking, a sideways look directed at the blond who, in turn, patted his back and assured him that they'd find a way. She loved that about Naruto. His optimism always inspired her to push forward, even when she felt that it was useless to do so, and his energetic demeanour always gave her to drive to go to great lengths to achieve her goals.

There were no natural shelters for miles, and by the time that they'd finally come upon one Hinata was so utterly intoxicated by exhaustion that she didn't question a cave _conveniently_ being present just as she was starting to blink in and out of sleep. The heiress simply trusted it, just as she accepted the Uchiha taking a seat at her side, both him and herself sitting across from Naruto and Sakura.

Drunk off of her fatigue, and maybe the sweet aroma inside the cave, she almost thought that they looked cute together.

 _Almost_.

A shiver passed over her and she hugged herself again, tugging her legs up to her chest and resting her chin on her knees. Despite her being so tired that she felt as if she could drift away in an instant, sleep refused to come. The piercing cold was too much. It went straight through her robes and her jacket as if she weren't wearing them at all, and it managed to sink its cold teeth into every inch of bare skin that it could find on her body.

"Are you cold, Hyūga?"

Her head came to rest on his shoulder when she spoke to answer, her mind to muddled by the need to sleep for her to constitute herself in a manner any more formal than was absolutely necessary. "Hai..." she replied, and felt his arm come around her. The Uchiha drew her in, pulling her closer until she was in his lap with both of his arms wrapped around her waist.

Sasuke's voice bore a slight chuckle, and at the sound of it Hinata was suddenly glad that the Uzumaki and Haruno were so quick to sleep. She was glad because despite her possibly being to tired to speak anything more than a word or two at a time, what he told her brought an undying flame to fruition in her cheeks, and caused her heart to pound so hard that she _knew_ he felt it, too.

"Then I'll warm you up..."


	2. Prelude to Winter, Part 2

**A/N**

 **I'm bad at this... hehe...**

 **Thanks for all of the reviews, Lords and Ladies! Even those from unimpressed readers! They help a lot~**

* * *

"Then I'll warm you up..."

 _Those words lingered in the forefront of her mind for a moment before she snapped back into reality, shifting in his hold so that she could look him in the eye. Or rather, try to look him in the eye. Between her fluttering heart and the lack of light, it was an excessively difficult feat._

 _A pair of hot hands cupped her cheeks, thumbs stroking the sides of her face and bottom lip. His fingers tucked her hair behind her ear and grazed her jaw, travelling down to her pulse, where they lingered. Despite her commanding her body to move on the inside, she was frozen, trembling at his touch but never flinching or moving away. It was almost as if she were in a trance. A very satisfying trance, at that._

 _Her previous grip on actuality slipped from her fingers the instant she drew a third, deep gulp of the sweet air that seemed to warm her insides. Her fantasies of being held and kissed and... touched... all played in her head in a matter of seconds when she felt his breath brushing against her lips. She could almost feel the foreign warmth, but at the last moment he drew back and simply hugged her, holding her firmly against him while the darkness seemed only to grow deeper. Until..._

A gasp.

Eyes fluttered open at the sudden licking of cold on her cheeks, and immense heat at her back.

The Hyūga didn't remember falling asleep, she couldn't recall _most_ of what had happened before her mind had been muddled to the point of no return, but she knew that she had to have slept.

When her eyes slid open, it was to the sight of darkness. Not darkness like it had been last night, with the light of the moon giving the room a pale, very _dim_ glow. This darkness was different. Absolute. A choking enigma that she hated to be trapped in, in a very warm, rather... _muscular_ cage. The... arms... that were wrapped around her waist wouldn't allow for much mobility, so she had to worm herself out of them.

Sadly... she lost the heat of the body, _and_ of its cloak...

Immediately as she was liberated from the Uchiha, and she _knew_ that it was him because of the cinnamon scent he bore, she hurried toward the cave's exit. Her face was burning so brightly that she found herself to be _shocked_ that it hadn't lit up the cave.

The feeling of the cool cave ground underfoot abruptly shifted to that of icy, needle-points when her bare foot crunched down in snow. She yelped aloud, jumping back and pacing in place for a few seconds. Her mouth covered, to keep any more noises from escaping her lips, the heiress wondered when she'd lost her shoes.

As the stinging in her feet began to recede, Hinata started to question her confidence. She _hated_ the dark, and if she had to choose between standing at the mouth of the cave and plunging herself back into the taunting darkness, she'd settle with standing here. Or rather, _sitting_ here.

Her knees drawn up to her chest, and her thin cloak being the only layer of defence, outside of her jacket, against the angry arctic air, she stared aimlessly up at the starry sky. The moon in all of its stunning, blue-white glory had travelled across the sky a _considerable_ amount, which led her to believe that she had slept for two or three hours, at least. But her attempt at using astronomical-mathematics to divert her attention from the dark haired man she'd been sleeping with minutes before withered away the _moment_ she grew weary of counting stars.

The next best thing would be to train a little. But since there was endless snow outside that she couldn't walk on without shoes if she hoped to _keep_ her feet, and _literally_ the devil at her back, beckoning her to retreat into his dark abode with the promise of returning to Sasuke's warm embrace, she settled on push ups. But... it was partly due to her heart still feeling like it was pounding a hundred times per second.

"One... two... three... four..."

* * *

The light stung the backs of his eyelids.

The breeze outside pierced his ears.

The cold that had returned to him during the night wasn't _as_ bad as it had been before. All the bodies here warmed the cave's interior considerably, though not enough to warrant the orange and black jacket carelessly strewn on the floor.

A groan escaped the lips of the Uchiha as his eyes opened, and for a moment be just sat there, his neck stiff from the cold all around himself, staring at the tangled mess of legs and blond and pink hair just across from him. A glance to his right side, he vainly hoped to find the Hyūga curled up, her inky hair falling freely about her fair skin, a contrast that would _never_ go unmissed.

But it was bright enough with the sun shining outside for him to see, and very clearly, that she wasn't there.

And so his investigation ensued,

The Uchiha buckled his black boots before standing up, expecting a long tread to find the lavender eyed Hyūga Princess. He heard her voice, though, faint as it may be. She seemed to be chanting quietly. As he stepped nearer, he noticed that her chanting was actually _counting_ , and until she came into view he'd become considerably suspicious about _what._

Amusement found his lips when he saw that she was struggling with push ups, and then curiosity with each number that passed.

"Nine thousand... nine hundred ninety... eight... nine thousand nine... hundred ninety... nine..." For a few moments she was quiet, her arms trembling as she forced herself upward pathetically slowly. "T... ten... thousand..."

 **Thud.**

She lay on the ground just a metre from him, her eyes shut and sweat dripping from her face onto the cold stone. The poor girl was so tired that she couldn't even move her arms, which looked like they were made entirely of jelly at that point, the way that they hung limply on either side of her. A small part of him prompted the Jōnin to make sure that she was still alive. So, he did what would take the least effort to do, and nudged her right elbow with the toe of his left boot.

"Hyūga." For a moment, she was unresponsive, and he stepped nearer to her to make sure she hadn't worked herself to _death_. Her eyes seemed to flutter open just as he knelt down at her side, and the sweet smile from before tried to return to her lips. It was combated by a pained look, and he sighed, clicking his tongue at her. "You're weird."

He didn't know how long she'd been out here doing her push ups, but if she'd managed ten thousand then it had to have been a while. And a _long while_ , at that. The girl was watching him, her breaths steadying as the minute dragged by, but not speaking. For a while, he couldn't take his eyes off of her, couldn't look away from her small form wrapped up in a jacket, her cloak discarded, folded a metre away from her on the ground.

Finally, after catching himself in a perpetual staring contest with the Hyūga princess, he stepped over her and into the snow, not much minding the sudden drop in temperature. "I'm going ahead to scout." He said, glancing back to the mass of lavender fabric and inky hair. "You should get some rest. We'll set out at noon."

* * *

The sun beat down on them, giving the group the illusion of warmth.

Hinata pressed her fingers together awkwardly as her eyes shifted numerous times from the Uchiha and Haruno ahead of her to the Uzumaki at her side. Naruto seemed completely oblivious to her nervous demeanour, and Sakura and Sasuke were paying little attention to her _at all_. The pinkette was too busy trying to get a laugh, or smile, from the onyx eyed Jōnin. He replied to her jokes with a simple, halfhearted _"hn"_ each time she fired a new one.

Her laughter and Naruto's, at least, filled the otherwise silent void.

The crunching underfoot changed suddenly, from that of snow to a crushing more akin to that of cracking _glass_. Her gaze lowered, Hinata was surprised to see that they were walking atop ice, and it looked dangerously _thin_ , at that.

A hand absently reached the Naruto for support, and an unparalleled feeling of joy flooded her when a large hand found her inner elbow, drawing her toward the strong form that was the Kyūbi Jinchūriki. Their eyes met, pearl and capitulating immediately to sapphire, and the heiress felt her cheeks redden at their closeness.

For a moment the blond watched her, a confused look, before it was suddenly replaced with his general, beaming look. He let her go, only to offer his elbow a split second later, guiding her forward when she took it. She would love to spend the day hanging onto him that him, staring into his endless blue eyes, but her confidence had been worn thin last night and her head immediately dropped when these thought were allowed in.

"I won't let ya fall, Hinata."

The woman burned when he spoke to her, as though they were closer than friends. At the thought that maybe... just _maybe_... they could share something more than friendly conversation when the circumstances called for it. But, she knew that her hopes were all vain. He'd told her before, that she was like family to him. Like a sister that he'd never had. That proclamation hurt her more than it should have... more than most other things did. But she stilled felt like the sun, who sat so low in the sky that she doubted it would ever rise again, had suddenly intensified its heat to beat down on her _specifically._

And so six or seven hours of crossing over harsh terrain later, hours of silence from Sasuke and a _lot_ of jokes exchanged between Naruto and Sakura, as well as a full trip across the sky for the winter sun that she was surprised to see rise at all in these far northern lands, the group took a break. They separated what food they had between them and ate, Uchiha and Hyūga in silence, and Haruno and Uzumaki knee deep in ghost tales, all gathered in a forest of evergreens. The heiress discovered herself sitting next to Sasuke rather than across from him, unable to _admit_ that the tales of ghosts horrified her when scrutinised by those onyx eyes.

The logs were still sticky with sap, despite the golden-blue flame burning before her.

"I'm s-s-sorry... U-Uchiha-san..."

She let his warmth escape her and scooted over so that there was cold space between them, curling her fingers in her lap and squeezing her eyes shut. For a moment the woman listened to Sakura's giggling as it bled together with Naruto's own grin, his voice trailing off and being replaced with the unmistakable sound of...

 _Kissing?_

"Why are you apologising to me?" Sasuke's voice resonated for a moment in her head, pushing past the torrent of embarrassed thoughts that lingered there, and she turned slightly to him. It was a mere reflex, to direct herself toward comfort, but he didn't miss it. In seconds, she'd been drawn back to his side, his black cloak wrapped around her and clasped at her neck so that it wouldn't fall.

A moment of silence between them before he spoke again: "You're going to get sick." The Uchiha stated, his eyes turned up when she finally found the courage to try meeting them. She tilted her head slightly, hugging herself underneath his black cloak while trying to peak underneath his bangs to see why he hid his left eye.

An onyx eye dropped down and the heiress turned her gaze away for a moment, watching him from the corner of her eye when the Uchiha furrowed his brows. She couldn't help but to smile a little at the expression he bore while watching her, waiting to meet her eyes again.

When she didn't lift her lilac gaze, again, he folded his arms and sighed.

"You're weird, Hyūga."

It was the second time he'd told her on that day, and the giddy feeling she got from the rather offhanded remark. She enjoyed his odd way of responding to things that she did, it was surprisingly fun to try eliciting new reactions than she'd thought. Maybe _that_ was why the other two had taken to telling him jokes earlier? But, as far as she could tell, the Uchiha survivor _didn't_ laugh.

 _Maybe just a chuckle, on occasion?_

Naruto and Sakura had disappeared into the trees, most likely in search of some sort of cave. Hinata didn't _dare_ let her thoughts wander beyond that point. She knew, inside, what young men and women tended to do while alone, she wasn't so naïve that it was a mystery to her. But, being the heiress of a particularly prestigious clan, she couldn't taint herself with the thoughts. And... she doubted her ability to _handle_ the added torment.

Uchiha Sasuke made it bearable, at least. He sat quietly at her side, eyes watching as the blue flames licked away at the numerous, rather large sticks and logs that had been set ablaze by his own jutsu. He wasn't normally very talkative. Like her, he bore an inclination toward silent communication, speaking with his body language and eyes rather than verbally. From what she knew of him, he was a calm, calculative shinobi, always alert, always processing _everything_ around him with the same fervour as he processed other people.

They were two introverts. Two shinobi who could understand one another better than they could understand others. Better than others could understand them. Because they thought the same way.

But she still wondered what was going through his mind, if he were wondering about her thoughts right then. So, she decided to break the silence.

"U... Uchiha-san..."

Black eyes met white.

And Hinata said nothing.

She hadn't actually given any thought to what she wanted to say, or how to strike up some sort of conversation with him. She almost slapped her forehead for the moment of incompetence that she'd experienced, but conducting herself as a Hyūga should, she spoke again. Slowly enough that she could think, but not so slowly that he would think her ill.

"Thank you... f-for the c-c-cloak, I mean... but I don't need it..."

"Keep it."

His tone was rather flat, even for _him_ , and that was considering the fact that the typical conversation with the lone Uchiha was one sided, with him just offering a _"hn"_ when it was necessary. But, she'd only hoped for him to speak, so she considered it progress. Even if she felt bad for accepting his cloak.

"B-but... Uchiha-san, won't you be c-cold and..."

"Hyūga."

Sasuke looked away from her, his eyes returning to the flame for a moment before he drew a quiet breath. Silence hung in the air between them, and for a moment she thought that he was upset with her. For trying too hard to get some sort of entertainment out of him, something to keep her mind away from the blond who refused to leave it, and the pinkette who'd been dragged in.

"Stop talking." He told her, shushing her when she began to protest. "Listen... Do you hear it?"

 _Silence?_

"That's the sound of peace, princess. I like it more than Sakura and the dobe could imagine. It's part of why I brought you, because I thought that you liked it, too."

Hinata couldn't stop the smile that curved her lips, nor the blush that grazed her cheeks. He was right, after all, about her liking to just bask in the sounds of nature. Perhaps she was just worrying herself over nothing.


End file.
